Category Archives: Performance

Out of Town, Out of Touch

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I am a Regional Manager, responsible for seven locations across the Midwest. I feel I have the ability to manage effectively without talking to my team on a daily basis. But, at times, I feel as if I am not in touch with their issues, challenges or daily routines. In fact, some are not even “available” for lunch or dinner when I am in town. Have I lost touch? Can you recommend a book to read, symposium to attend to improve my management skills? What has been your experience in managing people in multiple locations?

Response:

Thank you for your question. Reading a book will not solve your problem. Staying in touch with your location managers is tough when face-to-face meetings are not frequent. It’s tough, but not impossible.

First, create a master schedule of all the touches for the next six months. This includes face-to-face meetings, conference calls, 1-1 coaching calls, birthday cards and handwritten notes that are snail-mailed.

Ask your location managers what interaction is the most helpful, how you can provide the best support for them. Each person is different and may require a different frequency and kind of touch.

Tomorrow, I will talk about that in-town dinner your managers are not “available” for, but in the meantime, let’s open this up for posted comments. As a manager, how do you stay in touch with out of town direct reports, to support their issues, challenges and daily routines? -TF

A Shouting Match

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From the Ask Tom mailbag:

Question:

I’m new to the middle management game. I supervise on the weekend. I’ve got a great team with one exception, a young woman whose attitude will surely get in the way of her career. But, she doesn’t seem to care. She leaves early, complains when she has to work late, and runs to upper management every time she feels slighted. I’ve tried reducing her workload to get her out of the office on time. I’ve listened when she cries. I’ve tried being the tough supervisor. Nothing seems to work. Today (Saturday) she was called in early, but then left early without completing her regularly scheduled work. She said if I had a problem with it I should call upper management. The conversation deteriorated into a shouting match and she left.

I don’t want to run to management with this. I want to solve it myself. I just don’t know how. Any advice?

Response:

You are in a tough place. As the weekend supervisor, you have no authority to hire and fire and she is under the wing of a protective manager who doesn’t have to put up with her negative behavior on the floor. I have a few specific recommendations, but I would like to throw this out for general discussion.

Here is the discussion question. As a weekend supervisor, with only limited contact, how would you change this dynamic? Let me stipulate two rules. You cannot fire her and you cannot send her to a Dale Carnegie course. Please post a comment. -TF

How Well Should It Be Done?

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We were kicking around the new job description for a Project Manager. Howard was holding a copy of the current description. Current should be taken with a grain of salt. It was created three years ago and was little more than a starting place.

“Okay,” I started. “It says here that one of the responsibilities is scheduling.

The Project Manager is in charge of scheduling materials, equipment and personnel for the project.

“Remember our two questions? How well should it be done and by when?” I paused. The looks around the table were puzzling. I would have to dig deeper.

“Is part of scheduling actually publishing a written schedule?” I asked, finally getting nods of agreement.

“How far in advance should the schedule go?”

Matthew raised his hand. “At least a week.” He looked around to see if he was right. No one challenged him.

“Okay, by when should this schedule be published?”

Henry jumped in first. “By Friday, the week before, so on Monday, we know what is going on.”

“What time on Friday?”

“By 5:00 o’clock.” Henry replied.

I smiled. “Why not give yourself some time on Friday to review the Project Manager’s schedule to make sure it will fly?” Henry thought a minute, then slowly his head nodded.

By Friday at noon, the Project Manager will publish a written schedule detailing the materials, equipment and personnel requirements for each day of the following week.

“Is that better than the Project Manager is in charge of scheduling?” -TF

What Do We Pay You to Do?

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We were convened. I looked directly across the table at Matthew. “Just exactly, what is it that you think we pay you to do around here?”

“What?” Matthew had a puzzled look on his face. He had been paying attention, but this question caught him off guard. No one had ever asked him that question.

“It’s a fair question,” I repeated, “what do you think we pay you to do around here?” Matthew started to stammer out something, but I stopped him. I looked around the group. “Look, I am picking on Matthew to make a point. We are here today to create a job description for the open position of Project Manager. This is important work. If we fail to clearly set the expectations for this position, it is no wonder the last person fell short.”

Howard looked up. “But we have this old job description. It lists out all the stuff he is supposed to do.”

“That’s why most traditional job descriptions don’t work. They are just a list of tasks. In addition to what is supposed to be done, I want to ask two critical questions.

How well should it be done?

When should it be done?

“I want to create very clear performance standards that we can measure and I want to communicate that up front in the job description. Now, we have a good start because we have a list of tasks and responsibilities. We just have to answer those two questions about each.” -TF

Don’t Set Them Up to Sink

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“I just don’t know if he can do the job,” lamented Morgan. “It always seems to be a throw of the dice.”

“Why should it be a gamble?” I asked. “Why shouldn’t you be absolutely certain if Randy can do the job? He has worked here for two years.”

“Yes, but he has never been a supervisor before. And if we promote him and he can’t do the job, we will be stuck. We will either have to demote him or fire him. And demotion doesn’t work very well.”

“How can you be sure that he can perform all the tasks of a supervisor before you give him a promotion?” I probed. Morgan had a blank stare for a moment, and then he realized it was a leading question.

“You mean I should give him the tasks of a supervisor before I promote him?” Morgan was smiling now.

“Yes, not all at once. If you test him with all the tasks of a supervisor over a six week period and he is successful, you promote him. If he fails, you just stop giving him supervisor stuff.

“A promotion should not be sink or swim in the deep end of the pool. A promotion should be earned during a tightly controlled period of testing.” -TF

The Next Level

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“So, Travis, we have been talking about our on-the-job training program and how we use colored shirts as a reinforcement tool. Why did we go to all this trouble? I mean, it’s just a loading dock.”

Travis was bright and learning fast. “It’s not just this loading dock, and it’s not just this shift. And it’s not just the other four branch locations we have. This next year, our company has a pretty aggressive goal to open six more branches. If we have any hope for consistency in our operations, we have to have some sort of system, even in our loading procedures.”

“And when we build in this kind of consistency, what happens to our capabilities in opening more branch locations?”

“Well, now we can move people around with more confidence that everyone is doing things the same way. New branches won’t have to go through trial-and-error. They can get efficient faster. Just fewer headaches.” -TF

Most Important First Behavior

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“So, how does that work around here?” Travis asked. Using the analogy of video games and expert levels made the reinforcement process understandable, but we were running a loading dock, not playing a video game.

“Travis, the guys loading the trucks, have you noticed the different colored t-shirts they wear, the ones with the company logo on the front?”

“Yeah, I noticed. We started that about three weeks ago. The new guys get a white t-shirt to start. We had a meeting about it.”

“And when does the new guy get his white t-shirt?”

“The first day,” Travis smiled.

“No, the first day he punches the timeclock reporting for work on-time,” I clarified. “What is the most important first behavior?”

“Showing up for work on time,” Travis said.

“And when does he get his second white t-shirt?”

Travis was catching on. “The second day he punches in for work on time.”

“And when does he get a yellow shirt?” I continued.

“Five days on time, consecutive days on time.”

“And when does he get a green shirt?”

“When he passes forklift training.” Travis stopped. “I think I get it.” -TF

Don’t Fall Down Like That

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“Somewhere along the way, we lose our natural instincts in the training process.” I was talking with Travis, a lengthy discussion about positive reinforcement in training. “Last year’s training didn’t work and the reason has to do with practice. But a very special kind of practice.”

Travis was listening.

“Have you ever watched a parent teach their child to walk?” I asked.

“Yeah. I have a niece that is learning to walk. Her parents go goo-gah regularly, but still it’s a wobbly process.”

“Does a parent ever say, ‘No, that’s not the way to do it, let me show you. Don’t fall down like that.’?”

“Well, no. They just get all excited, clap their hands and gurgle baby talk.”

“Somewhere along the way, we lose our natural instincts in the training process. Behavior that is reinforced gets repeated. The two elements that were missing from your training last year were practice and immediate positive reinforcement.

“Initial attempts at a new skill or new behavior are usually terrible, but that’s not the point. Your job as a manager is to get all excited, clap your hands and gurgle.

“Look, Travis. When do parents give up encouraging their child to walk?”

Travis was still mentally drawing lines in the analogy. “They never stop, I guess. Maybe only when the kid learns to walk.” -TF

Erratic or Predictable?

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“But, I give them feedback,” protested Tyler. “They know how to do it right. Why won’t they just do it the way they are supposed to?”

“You want your team members to work the line in a specific sequence in a specific way? You are looking for very specific behaviors?” Tyler nodded his head in agreement.

“When they do it wrong, do you pay attention to them?” I asked.

“Of course. I am usually right on it,” Tyler replied.

“And when they do it right, are you right on it?”

“Well, when they do it right, they just do it right. When they do it right, I don’t yell at them.”

“Tyler, to get desired behaviors, you have to reinforce those behaviors in a positive way. Yelling at people for doing something wrong doesn’t teach them to do it right. Yelling just creates avoidance from doing it wrong. That avoidance behavior can by very erratic and unpredictable. They don’t know whether to scream or eat a banana.

“On the other hand, if you positively reinforce desired behavior, it becomes repeated and predictable.

“So, Tyler, you tell me. What has more value, erratic avoidance behavior or positively reinforced predictable behavior?” -TF

Still Have to Have the Conversation

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“I just don’t understand,” said Harry, “Four weeks ago, we introduced an incentive program for efficiency on the shop floor, and so far, I haven’t seen any improvement at all. What are we doing wrong?”

“In the past four weeks, since you introduced this incentive program, how many meetings have you held to talk about efficiency?” I asked.

“Meetings? That is why we started the incentive program, so we wouldn’t have to have meetings, so we wouldn’t have to spend time talking about it. With the money we put out there, they should be able to figure some things out, shouldn’t they?”

“Just because you have put up some money to achieve a specific result, doesn’t mean that you don’t have to talk about it. Some behaviors will help efficiency, some behaviors may not, some behaviors may even work against efficiencies. You have an incentive program, but you still have to have the conversation.

“I want you to think about this. Even if you did not have an incentive program, wouldn’t the conversation still be critical? Wouldn’t it be valuable to talk about positive behaviors that work for us and other behaviors that work against us?” -TF